Start a Community Food Garden

The Essential Handbook

Community gardening enhances the fabric of towns and cities through social interactions and accessibility to fresh food, creating an enormously positive effect in the lives of everyone it touches. LaManda Joy, the founder of Chicago’s Peterson Garden Project and a board member of the American Community Gardening Association, has worked in the community gardening trenches for years and brings her knowledge to the wider world in Start a Community Food Garden. This hardworking guide covers every step of the process: fundraising, community organizing, site sourcing, garden design and planning, finding and managing volunteers, and managing the garden through all four seasons. A section dedicated to the basics of growing was designed to be used by community garden leaders as an educational tool for teaching new members how to successfully garden.

“Joy’s timely handbook is about organizing people as well as planting produce, and the sustainable satisfaction of raising one’s own food.” —Publishers Weekly Best Lifestyle Book of 2014

“This delightful ‘handbook’ by Joy, a master gardener, offers equal parts sociology skills, organizational principles, business management tips, and illustrated guides for (among other things) planting seeds with the tip of a finger. . . . An excellent tool that cultivates human communities as much as it grows vegetables in group gardens.” —Publishers Weekly starred review

“Joy’s turnkey guide to project establishment and management is a masterpiece of organization, and the principles she communicates could be applied to any grassroots movement, not only community gardening. A former corporate executive and acclaimed master gardener who established Chicago’s groundbreaking Peterson Garden Project, Joy successfully combines her business communication and managerial skills with her love for garden production to create an essential and accessible resource for community leaders.” —Booklist

“A valuable reference for building a strong foundation, for anyone new to organizing or community gardening.” —Library Journal

“When you have a question, you ask an expert. That’s why people contemplating starting community gardens would come to LaManda Joy. . . . A wonderful resource on the subject.” —Chicago Tribune

“As we all become more aware of what we eat and the origin of our food, vegetable gardening is booming. Leading the way is LaManda Joy.” —Make It Better